When I'm with you, I'm home
by OneMoreBite
Summary: As years passed, both Roy and Riza had moved farther from home which they now miss. And for Christmas, with Maes being Santa Claus, all they could wish for was for them to relive those moments. Royai.


_**look what I found in my old notebook! It was drabbled during my 6th grade graduation practices. This was before I found out that Maes Hughes... Maes Hughes... (bursts into tears)**_

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It was like an unwritten rule in HQ - every year they threw a Christmas party and everyone, and I mean _everyone_ had to attend.

It was a gathering wherein everybody could just forget their obligations and responsibilities and such and just have a good time, getting to know the people behind their ranks.

It included music, dancing, games, and a big, _big _feast.

It was what everybody looked forward to every year. And even better, they could wear anything they wanted to _except_ their uniform. It was a part of what was eventually called "unmasking".

There was just one thing about it: Only military personel were allowed to attend.

Nevertheless, when Christmas Party season approached, everybody would get all psyched up and buy presents and such which they would all place under a huge christmas tree, while, of course, following the "Secret Santa" thing. It was something new every year. It started off as using plain names, then it involved into using pennames.

But this time, there was a catch.

"It's like a wishlist" Hughes beamed when he pranced inside the Colonel's office, handing out red strips of paper. "You remember how we pull out the person's name and guess what she wants? Well, this time, we're gonna do the exact opposite"

Roy yawned.

"You put in your wish, and then another person picks it out, and grants your wish for you. That person will have to identify who that person is through his or her wish, and grant it during the gift giving part of the night"

"Sounds stupid" Roy yawned.

"This was _my_ idea!" Maes wailed.

"You can ask for anything, right?" Havoc asked.

"Whatever wish is in your heart" Maes grinned.

"This is irritating. It's bad enough that we have to go" Roy grumbled.

Actually, the militant had a choice if you could go or not but the Gathering was such a big thing, that if you were absent, especially if you were a higher up, you'd get a lot of questions like "Colonel, I didn't catch you at the gathering! Such a wasted opportunity to socialize..." or something like that from someone like a General.

"Oh come on, you can bring a date" Maes grinned, getting closer to the colonel. "Aren't you interested in any military woman, anyone one in particular?"

"Back off, Maes" Roy shoved Hughes' face away with the use of his hand. "Too much happiness. Besides, most of the women in the military have had their faces rubbed against hot pavement wherein soldiers have spat and pissed on. That's not really what I would call endearing"

"That's the purpose of this gathering! You can meet women as women, not as militants" Maes' grinned even wider. "Are you sure you're not interested in anyone? An acquaintance, maybe? A superior? A friend? A _subordinate_?"

"No one" Roy flatly answered.

"Tch" Havoc snickered.

"What was that, Havoc?" Roy glared.

"N-nothing sir" Havoc stammered. "I just had a lot of air in my mouth. Tch. See? Tch. Tch. Tch"

"So, you got any wish?" Hughes asked.

"I'm not joining this inanity" Roy asked. "And I'm not interested in meeting anyone"

"Really?" Hughes asked. "I thought all women were your type"

Roy shrugged. "I'm juggling 5 women already"

"Y-You are?" Havoc's pace went all pale. "_I _just got dumped..."

"There, there" Hughes told him as he picked up Havoc's strip of paper. He opened it and laughed after he read out his wish: "A date".

"H-Hey! That's cheating!" Havoc cursed.

"You'll find, someone, Havoc" Hughes assured him.

"You think so?" Havoc smiled a little.

"Eventually"

More Gloom.

"Whatever, then" Roy yawned and scribbled down something on his strip of paper, which to him, was an irritatingly vivid shade of green, and dropped it inside the sock, evading Hughes' hand which had mastered strip snatching.

"Great! Great!" He grinned and pulled out another strip of paper from the bag. "You'll be this person's secret santa".

"Why do _you _get to choose my victim?" Roy asked.

Maes shrugged. "Same same"

He held the sock out to Havoc and told him to pick a strip, and did the same to everyone else.

The door opened.

"Good Afternoon Lieutenant" Maes smiled and pulled out a strip from the sock and handed it to Hawkeye as he passed by. "I'll be seeing you guys at the party, then! Bye bye!"

Hawkeye casually slipped the piece of paper inside her pocket without even looking at it.

"Are you finished with your paperwork yet, Colonel? You had all morning to work on them"

"I'm still working on it..." He answered, mentally groaning. "Isn't today your day off, Lieutenant?"

"I don't need one" She frankly answered and sat down.

Roy groaned some more. Mentally, of course. He was pretty much sure that Hawkeye still had about three guns on her, all fully loaded.

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It was a merry, merry time.

Ribbons hung from the walls while Christmas balls and stars hung from the ceiling. To top it off, smacked at the center of the place was a huge, HUGE christmas tree with fake snow at its edges, lotsa lights, balls and ribbons.

It was apparent that everbody had given their all to make the place as lively as it could be.

The lights itself was blinding.

It was as early as 8 o'clock, but the drinks were already served at 7, and the serving of alcohol signified the official start of the Christmas party.

"Meeeeeeeerry Christmas!!!!" Hughes pranced about in a Christmas hat, carrying a big basket of chocolates and handing them out to random people. "These are from my gorgeous wife! It can be addicting, because these are the best!"

Hawkeye stood by the doorway, wearing a nice, long skirt and a powder blue sweater over a white tank top. Aaaaah details.

People usually dressed up for this occassion. They'd wear dresses, or sometimes semi - formal gowns, suits, or dress up as Santa Claus, elves or as incredibly slutty Mrs. Clauses.

Usually Hawkeye would dig up for a nice, decent, dress. But she went for this, this time.

"Lieutenant!" Maes cheered. "Have a cookie! Dance some! Drink some!"

"Thank you, Maes, but I'd rather --"

"Oh, come on" He grinned, pulling her to the dance floor. "You're supposed to have a great time!"

"So... when does the exchanging of wishes start?" Hawkeye asked and Maes forced a dance out of her.

"At midnight" he replied, grinning.

Hawkeye raised her eyebrow. "So who'd you get?"

"Now, we're not supposed to tell"

Hawkeye shrugged. "It has to be interesting. Half of the people here didn't write very practical wishes"

Maes raised an eyebrow. "How'd _you_ know that?"

"You were reading the wishes out loud during lunch time, wherein you sat by my table" she replied as Hughes got her to twirl or whatever you call that.

_**(Author Interjection: I know nothing about dance, btw)**_

Hughes let out a hearty laugh and pulled Hawkeye aside and dug into his pocket. He pulled out a red strip of paper and read it out loud "A nice friendly hug".

"Sweet".

"A nice friendly hug" Maes read again. "And a new, updated encyclopedia set"

Hawkeye grinned.

"Let's say that I have a pretty good idea on who it is". Maes looked around. "Hey, have you seen Roy?"

Hawkeye shrugged. "Maybe he's late"

"Hm" Maes frowned. "He's never usually late for a gathering wherein there a lot of Mrs. Clauses in mini skirts"

Hawkeye could only snicker.

Maes picked a glass off a nearby table. "Champagne?"

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Right now, Hawkeye was pretty much wishing that Maes hadn't given her the champagne glass, because after that, she had around seven or eight more.

"Okay, everybody!" she heard Maes' voice boom. "Ten minutes 'till midnight!!"

She was about to grab a glass when Havoc pulled it out of her hand.

"Anything wrong, Lieutenant?" he asked.

"Nah" Hawkeye replied. "I'm just about to grant someone a very, very, unpractical wish"

"No wonder you're drinking" Havoc snickered. "Anyway, I'm hoping I'm lucky tonight"

"What did you get?" Hawkeye asked.

Havoc pulled a somewhat crumpled red strip of paper. "A kiss" he read out loud.

Hawkeye could only laugh.

"So what did you get?" Havoc asked.

"I'm not supposed to tell"

"But I told you what I got!"

"That was your choice"

"Unfair"

"Shut up"

"Okay everyone!" Maes' voice boomed again. "Time for the wish granting!"

Automatically, everyone gathered together.

"Welps" Havoc flexed his biceps. "It's time for my kiss."

He walked towards the crowd. "You'r not coming, Lieutenant?"

"The person I'm looking for is most probably not in the crowd" she shrugged.

Havoc would've given a nice reply, but a then a herd of hot women passed by and he couldn't help but imagine if one of them had written the wish he recieved.

Hawkeye sat there, playing with a champagne glass but not taking another sip, watching Maes give Kain a hug and an entire enyclopedia set which he lugged agross the floor, and watching Havoc get a hot date, who was the forty seven year old single Librarian, and then find out that the person who had asked for a kiss was Denny Brosh.

They would've called it off but everyone else had been chanting "Kiss Kiss Kiss Kiss Kiss"

"We'll never speak of this again" Havoc hissed

"Never" Denny had agreed before proceeding to...that.

Hawkeye snickered, knowing that Havoc had thought that he was gonna have a good night, before standing up and leafing through her pocket to look for her strip of paper.

She pulled out a green strip from her pocket and sighed. "It _is _midnight after all"

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_Knock Knock._

"It's open" Roy Mustang replied.

Hawkeye opened the door. "Sir, what are you doing in the office when you're supposed to be at the gathering?"

Roy shrugged. "There's really nothing there but drinking and dancing and more drinking"

"I was thinking that you'd be one of those sociable people" Hawkeye told him.

"I've screwed half the women at that gathering" he shrugged.

"And you're at the office?" Hawkeye raised an eyebrow.

"I had to catch up on paperwork, now, didn't I?"

"Really? You'd trade a nice, party with lotsa chicks for paperwork?"

"If I didn't get this in by tomorrow" He reasoned. "You'd shoot me"

"I've never even pointed my gun at you, sir. Not in the anime, nor in the manga"

He shrugged. "You've threatened. And besides, talking about chicks? Doesn't sound like you, Lieutenant"

"I've had a couple of glasses of champagne" she shrugged.

Hawkeye held the strip of paper. "You know, you've changed so much from the last time I saw you"

"Wow, really? In a span of eight hours?" Roy raised an eyebrow.

"Sir, I meant the last time I saw you as Roy, not as my superior nor as an alchemist" she shrugged as she pulled a green strip of paper out of her pocket. "And all this time, in between that period, I never knew that you didn't look at me as just as a subordinate"

"It's practically my obligation" Roy put his pen down. "Have you been drinking?"

"I had to, sir" she answered. "And that's not what I had meant. Besides, I was drinking in order for me to grant your wish"

"My wish?"

"It's midnight already" she opened up the green strip of paper. "For Christmas" she read out loud. "Sensei's daughter".

Roy raised an eyebrow. "So... you got my strip, and that's why you dressed accordingly to how you dressed when we were young"

"No, sir. This is how I usually dress when I'm not wearing a uniform. And you're horrible at disguising your handwriting. I'm pretty much surprised that you'd write something like this for an even like this"

"So you're here to tell me off or something?" he asked. "I wanted to see how far Maes' wishy thing can go"

"Or you really just wanted this known?"

"You think that I'm that kind of person, Lieutenant?"

"You were, sir, how many years ago. Before all this. It was a nice time, then"

"So that's why you asked for home?" He asked in a soft voice. Right now, he and Hawkeye were too close. It wasn't really the appropriate distance that a subordinate and a superior usually had. But as of that moment, he was just Roy and she was just Riza.

"S-sir?"

Roy smiled and pulled out his paper. "And all this time, Lieutenant... you wanted to relive the past as well"

He opened his strip of paper. "Home".

Riza felt his hand touch her cheek. "And to think that _you_ were criticizing me". She felt him coming so close, that she could practically taste his breath.

"What's your definition of home, Lieutenant?"

"This" she answered, as she felt his lips pressed against hers.

In the background, Maes was there, grinning.

He was happy to find out that the both of them had gotten their wishes. He got Sensei's daughter, and she found home in the unnatural world of him being her superior.

It was Christmas, after all.

'Idiots' Maes thought to himself, looking at the couple. 'And they never noticed... they both got green strips from me while everybody else got red'

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**OWARI**

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**_Yeah... Maes planned it all and set them up by marking their strips... with a different color._**

**_I turn 14 later on this July. Your review can be your really early birthday gift to me_**

**_And I don't mind Criticism or Flamers. They help me write._**


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